Sen. Carper unveils a
surprise for direct mailers.
Senators Tom Carper (D-DE) and Tom Coburn (R-OK), the chairman and ranking
member of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, last night
introduced a discussion draft of the Postal Reform Act of 2013 (PRA) that, if
passed as is, would almost guarantee higher postal rates for business mailers. The PRA would place a two-year moratorium on plant and retail office closings, a jobs preservation feature likely to win the approval of labor unions and Senate Democrats. The bill would also let the rate cap pegged to the Consumer Price Index expire in 2016, at which time USPS would be able to set its own rates. With postal operations capacity far out-stripping postal volume, the survival of the Post Office would inevitably fall on the shoulders of higher rates paid by the agency's best customers: business mailers.
